Tuesday, July 10, 2007

La Finca de Susana (Madrid)

We took the overnight train from Bilbao to Madrid which was actually pretty comfortable. We were just stopping in Madrid for the day and flying to Marrakech in the evening. Since it’s Monday, most of the museums were closed, which was a bummer, but fortunately I’ve been to all of the big ones the last time I was in Madrid. We did a quick walking tour of the city and then proceeded to our favorite activity – eating! We stopped in the Museo del Jamon for some breakfast/snack and of course sampled some of their ham. We tried a variety, and while they were all pretty good, nothing blew us away.

We went to La Finca de Susana (C. Arlaban, 4) for lunch. The restaurant was very highly recommended in the Let’s Go Guide for having “delicious fine dining and swanky surroundings… at an extremely low price.” Well, Let’s Go got two out of three right: the restaurant had a nice atmosphere, and the price was indeed really low: the lunch prix-fixe menu was 8.50 euros for appetizer, entrée, dessert, and drink. Unfortunately, the food left much to be desired. My sister and I got the quiche for starters while my mom got a salad. Both were pretty bland but we tried to eat as much of it as we could. But when the entrees came, we gave up – they were all so bad that we just couldn’t eat anymore. The tuna was rubbery, and the veal was so tough you’d think it came from old jerky. All of us barely touched our food, which was pretty unusual for us. We unanimously agreed that this was the worst meal we’ve had so far in Europe (and it’s still true even as I’m writing this two weeks after…) Maybe we caught it on a bad day, but we certainly do not plan to try again.